The Vanishing Islands That Just Won’t
The NYT is almost palpably disappointed to find the Maldives are still there – and growing.
Lushington Brady
The Fault Lines from Washington Are Felt around the World
From free speech to NZ politics, events in Washington are reverberating around the world.
What’ll They Do When the Smokers Vanish?
How can smoking cancers “peak” half a century after smoking did?
The Button-Down Mind Set Free: RIP Bob Newhart
Bob Newhart, the accountant whose comedy career spanned five decades, has passed away.
Just Another Day of Stabbing in Paris
Just the latest in “a string of unrelated security incidents in the French capital this week”.
Grace Tame to Step Down from Charity
We live in an Age of Unreason. Characteristic of such an age is the near-universal trading of victimhood-as-currency. The Cult of the Victim fosters all manner of irrational ideas. As the great Australian journalist Jack Marx wrote, years ago, should there come a point where the mouths of victims’ families
Polls Are All Good News for Dutton
As I wrote recently, the small target strategy has been the prevailing wisdom in Australian politics since 1993. That was the year John Hewson launched his Fightback! campaign, a year out from an election. Hewson was perhaps the last politician to try a degree of honesty: he told everyone, in
Does She Look like She Has a Sense of Humour?
Every joke is a tiny revolution, as Orwell said. Which is why authoritarians so detest comedy. Actual comedy, that is. What is passed off as ‘comedy’ on late night US television, or Australia’s ABC, for instance, are very much not. They’re Maoist Struggle Sessions pretending to be comedy.
Back to the Basement for Joe
Looks like it’s back to the basement for Senile Joe. The presidential incumbent and Democrat candidate for this year’s election has ducked out of a campaign visit to a battleground state, after testing positive for Covid. Which is odd, because Biden is fully boosted with the Covid vaccination,
Donald Trump’s Big Week of Miracles
A week that could have been unimaginable disaster just gets better and better for Donald Trump. By literally dodging a bullet in Pennsylvania, Trump came up with the campaign photo for the ages. A bloodied Trump, fist raised in defiance against a backdrop of blue sky and American flag, has
Is a Banger Tune More Important than a Baby’s Life?
One of the most jaw-dropping scary sights I’ve seen on the roads was passing a girl driving solo on Tasmania’s West Tamar highway. She had her head down, texting on her phone, with earbuds in. In other words, she was completely sensory-isolated from what was going on around
Oh No! Anyway…
I don’t know whether to laugh or quietly curse in disappointment. On the one hand, the first explicit attempt to leverage sectarian politics in Australia in half a century is allegedly imploding. On the other, a potentially fatal wedge against the Labor party is imploding. I’m talking, of
Suck It Up, These Are the Rules You Wanted
Listening to independent journalist Tim Poole recently, he made a point about free speech which changed much of my previous thinking. Free speech, yes, Poole said. But only for people who actually believe in free speech. Free speech fundamentalism, advocating free speech even on behalf of people who avowedly do
The Return of the Album
If you recall my review of When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, I’m not exactly the world’s biggest Billie Eilish fan. As I wrote at the time, it was fairly standard, slick, but oddly murky studio wizardry, propping up a performer distinguished only by her
They’re Old and They Want It All
My readers know me only too well. As an astute BFD reader commented on my recent piece about the generationally divided, two-speed economy: I just said to my wife yesterday that it was about time for Lushy’s annual boomer baiting. Annual? I can and must do better than that.